Technopole 31 March

A brief Sunday morning visit was my first for 22 days. Early March’s black-headed gulls are all departed and the gull flock is now dominated by lesser black-backed and sub-adult Audouins, amongst which are still five Mediterranean gulls. Fifity or so gull-billed terns were the only tern species. The variety and number of waders has also dwindled. Most abundant is ringed plover (100+), with only wood sandpiper and the as ever inert flock of Senegal thick-knees above 10. Yellow wagtails are coming into breeding plumage and it was possible to identify males of flava, flavissima and iberiae. The only other palearctic passerines were European reed and great reed warblers calling from the Typha beds. Of the larger african waterbirds, of interest was an immature yellow-billed stork.

Header photo: Cap Vert IBA, Dakar

The defunct, twin volcanoes of Mamelles, in Dakar's Ouakam arrondissement, with Cape Verde Shearwaters and Bottle-nosed Dolphins. The rocky coast of Dakar, forming the Cap Vert Important Bird Area, is an outstanding site for seabirds (photo: P. Robinson)